special tools bah!

I got my shopping list done and have on order the stuff that Glen did not have in stock. The brake line is about $58 with shipping. The parts that I have allow me to continue on with some other things while waiting for the heads to be finished.
A while back I had obtained a San Jose reinforced swing arm from a 1975 R60/6 cafe project basket case that I traded for. The thing was painted cherry red but my son did his usual best on painting it black for me. It came with a drive shaft that has a worn out u-joint and also I did not want to give up the 1980 cushioned drive shaft. I want to install the cushioned drive shaft in this old reinforced swing arm. Previously I had taken cushioned drive shafts to a mechanic to have removed/installed because I don't have the BMW special tool. I thought that I would take up the challenge and see if I could figure a special tool of my own to compress the spring enough to remove the spring clip. Here it is:

This is the same special tool that is used to put the shock absorber into the forks.

Yea!! I could put it back together in the reinforced swing arm except that I need to replace the circlip, shouldn't really reuse the old one. That is no big deal now that I have the special tool.

This is the character that is developing on this motorcycle. Like I said this came with a 1975 R60/6 but is obvious that it is either a late 1973 long wheel base or early 1974 as they were still using up the stock of "extended" swing arms. It is essentially made up of short wheel base parts with a welded on extension to make it meet the long wheel base specifications. And then some one sent it to San Jose to have it reinforced. The end result is a swing arm that has a lot more fabrication on it than most that you will see but as I said it has character.

done with the bottom end

I was thinking that I was finally done with the bottom and and had to wait on the top end stuff to come back to continue on with any engine work but that it dawned on me that the oil pan, oil filter and connecting rods do not have to wait for anything. As it turned out this was a wonderful way to work on the oil pan, you don't often get this kind of perspective on the bottom of the engine.

I was able to clean and inspect the block bottom like never before. I touched up a few spots of the aluminum casting and was able to check all the threads. I found one thread that was damaged; someone had previously run a longer bolt into it. I chased it with a tap and put a socket head bolt in to differentiate from the others. I also marked it with paint so that I will remember next time that this one is damaged. They all torqued down OK. I put on the gasket dry, no sealer, as I felt confident like never before about the sealing surface.

The connecting rods went in without a hitch. It is nice to be doing each task only ONCE and getting it right the first time. Now I am into things that I have done before.

Is this like the Pepsi can in the movie scene? I should be some compensation for this!!

Now bottom end done!!

timing chain on

There are a lot of tasks that I can do to an airhead motorcycle without a manual or any hesitation because I have done them so many times before. So, I am a whole lot humbled by this weeks work where I seem to have to do everything twice to get it right. I am in new territory and am learning. More on that later.
To get the timing chain on I followed Snowbum's and Tom Cutter's advice. I checked (more than once during this process) to see that the flywheel is showing OT and that the alignment marks on the sprockets are lined up. I wrapped the chain on and then pinned the ends together from the front with the old master link. I found that the best place for this operation was to position the master link to the left of and between the two sprockets. That is where I found the most room to manipulate the new master link from behind the chain to chase the old link out.

The clip goes on so that the fish swims upstream, clockwise rotation of the chain.

Yea! So far so good! Let's put the tensioner and the shoe on now. Oh, wait, I can't get the tensioner spring and cap in place because they have to go on before the timing chain. Fine, take the timing chain off, put the spring in the cap, put the cap in place in it's bore and tape it in tight with electrical tape. Now I can put the timing chain on for the 2nd time and install the tensioner.

I installed the timing chain cover with the gasket dry. The cover slip fit over the crankshaft bearing without being heated up. That worried me a little bit. I don't see any signs of the bearing race spinning in the cover but just in case I put some drips of locktite on the outer race.
I had pulled the starter motor out before because I had noticed a bolt on the solenoid had backed out and I couldn't torque it in with out pulling the starter. Before the starter goes in I take the opportunity to replace the gaskets on the crank case breather housings. Put the diode board, alternator and ignition bean can in and attach the wires. Just to get a feeling of accomplishment I put the alternator cover on. It is beginning to look like an engine again.

clutch installation v.2.0

Shortly after I bought the T I had to have some clutch work done on it and I assumed that what I took apart now was what Glen had assembled then. I called Glen and asked him to remind me what the reason was for gluing the spring plate into the flywheel What? He has no idea why someone would do such a thing. Are you sure that you didn't do this back 5 years ago when I had that work done? He is so sure. So, the only alternative is that I had disassembled the clutch and brought the parts to him to be inspected. Gosh I wish that I had done better record keeping. That is partly why I am doing this blog.
So, since no one can tell me why it would be advisable to glue the plate to the flywheel, just because that is the way that I took it apart, then there is no good reason to put it back together that way. I took it back apart, cleaned up the silicon mess, put on a thin layer of Guard Dog molly be damned on the fingers and on the base edge and put it back together. That is no big deal, much less than an hour's work.

While I was on the phone with Glen he told me that my timing chain should be here tomorrow and that he was going to be closing early on Friday (Road America this weekend).
I got a voice mail from Godfrey that my centerstand was done. Godfrey (Jeff Stephens, see MilVinMoto) has done welding work for me before, he modified my motorcycle hauler for instance, I am always amazed by his level of workmanship. All I wanted him to do was to lay in some gobs of weld to fill in the holes that had worn though the bottom of my Reynolds ride-off. When I went to pick it I had to look at it for a minute to figure out if it was really mine and what the heck had he done to it. He didn't just fill it in with gobs, he had basically restore the original shape of the centerstand to look like it had never been set on before. Nice job!

I got this in the mail today, too. What I should have had a long time ago, I was reminded by a post on this BMWMOA Airhead thread, a Cycle Works wheel bearing lube adapter tool. I can lube the wheel bearings on the rear wheel easily enough but I need this to keep my front wheel bearings maintained. There should be a sticky thread in this forum just for special tools; whether they be factory, standard manufactured or home-made. I'd like to see that. I'd also like to see me get off this computer before this storm strikes and the power goes out. All I can hear is wind, thunder and sirens. signing off.

clutch installation

I like this schedule that I have this week. Being in training at corporate in Racine gets me home earlier than normal, today at 3:00 !!! I have practice at church today which usually means that I have to rush from work to church to make that in time and then the evening is over. Today I have enough time to casually install the clutch and still be able to blog it.
I forgot to ask why this spring gets glued instead of lubed. I know that there is a reason.

Guard Dog Moly be damned on the spring fingers, friction disk bore and where the push rod meets the back disk.

Make sure that OT and all the alignment marks that were put on at disassembly are lined up, use the clutch compression long bolts to pull it together and torque it down.

Hop on Toad and get to practice on time. Bass guitar time!! woot

rear main seal, oil pump cover, clutch inspection

The weekend was for going to work on Saturday morning and ripping out old shrubbery Saturday afternoon, playing bass guitar Sunday morning like nearly always and then back to landscaping the front yard on Sunday afternoon. Motorcycle? wait for it ....
I am in a training class at corporate headquarters this week so I will maybe able to get home 'early' most of this week. Let's see if I can get some stuff done incrementally.
I replaced the o-ring on the oil pump cover and then installed the rear main seal. When I got to the point of reinstalling the fly wheel I realized that I had gotten the oil pump o-ring and the flywheel ID  o-ring mixed up. I wonder sometimes if I am capable of doing these things. I wonder sometimes if this is going to leak oil worse when I am done then when I started.
wrong:

 I was wondering why I had to smear on a light coat of gasket sealer if there was such a fat o-ring on there. Now I know.
Here is the next bugger. I think that the rear main seal may have gone on too far. I think that it is supposed to be flush with the casting. After reading different instructions and thinking that I knew what I was doing .... I am not so sure. Note to self: ... adjust the set screws on the installer tool to about 3mm and stop, relax the installing tool and check before cranking it all the way down. This one is recessed by about 1-2mm, I don't know if that is critical but we will find out.
I had some clutch work done soon after I purchased this motocicleta but my record keeping was not so good at the time. I know that the friction disc was replaced but I am not sure about the plates. From the looks of things the outside clutch plate was not replaced. I could get a good fingernail or better of ridge on the outside of the plate indicating that it had worn pretty deep. Compared to a clutch plate that I pulled from a 1979 R100RT that had no discernible ridge on the outside, I decided to swap in the 1979 and set the 1980 aside. I measured up the other parts as I could and I am within spec on those. Cleaned 'em up, prepped 'em and go make some Italian sausage sandwiches ... for tonight.

steps backwards and steps forwards

Glen (Thoroughbred Cycles) called me about the inspection of the cylinder heads and it wasn't all good news. Bear in mind that I sent in 2 pairs of heads, one pair from Gilera and one pair from a 1979 R100RT that I want to get reworked so that I can swap that onto Toad the 1982 R100RT when I get a chance (soon). I was thinking about using both sets the way they were but decided instead to have them checked out just in case. A variety of worn exhaust valve guides, bad valve seats, bad valves, an exhaust port thread that was damaged, flame ring indentation, head base surface damage, etc. is going to cost about $1000 before I can have them back. This is because I don't want to cut any cost or take any shortcuts; I want heads that will last another 100,000 miles each. That should get me to the wheelchair.
So, whilst those are going in for repair I picked up the parts I need to refurbish the timing chain. I need to get that done so that I can put the cover back on and get back to the rear main seal replacement. Well, when I got the chain off and went to compare it with the new one to see how much it had stretched I found out that the new one was for a K100, it is about twice too long! Wrong part. I called Glen, he doesn't have the right part in stock but will get it going for me. Meanwhile, I rigged up a solution to hold the crankshaft back in place so that I can get to the rear main seal repair.

When working on the timing chain get the OT mark visible in the flywheel peek hole and make sure that the marks on the crankshaft sprocket and the camshaft sprocket stay lined up. I put a paint dot on each mark to make it more visible.

The repair manual nor the fiche show these but there are two washer shimming the chain guide out from the casting.

I didn't get the satisfaction (yet) of seeing how much chain stretch I've got but both the tensioner (shown here) and the chain guide were not just worn out but defabricating. Chunks coming off.

So, on to the rear main seal. Now that I have the crankshaft secured so that it won't move forward I can remove the flywheel to get to the rear main seal.
How to clean? Stuff it with a sock.

Dowse it with Gunk until it looks like this ...

... and this ...

Next I have to pop the seal out and open up the oil pump cover but now it's ...